That is right. It was set out in 1996, and we know how events then overtook us. The Bill never became law and was not picked up by the Labour Government after that. We are trying to do   something that should have happened 10 years ago, if not before. There was certainly a good head of steam behind making the changes at that time—had the Government been able to carry on what they had set out to do in that proposed new law.

In attempting to make contact work and in the context of enforcement orders, the clause deals with the symptoms rather than the underlying problem—we will come on to discuss what forms of penalties can be imposed for those parents who continue to breach contact orders—yet our fear is that the measures are completely toothless. They are not criminal measures. In too many cases, if the resident parent is not in a position to pay financial compensation, it will not be paid. Worse still, it will be to the detriment of the children with the resident parent if the money is diverted away from their care. Maintenance money from the non-resident parent that is aimed at the children will simply be recycled as fines, having taken up an awful lot of commission for court fees and various other things along the way. That cannot be satisfactory. As hon. Members have said, the only penalty under the law as it stands is contempt of court, which courts are reluctant to use.

What we have is a system where contact need not mean reasonable contact. It can amount to a birthday card and a Christmas card, or an afternoon snatched on a wet Saturday in a windy coastal resort. In extreme examples it can be in contact centres if it is deemed that the contact needs to be supervised, and they are not the most family friendly or uplifting places, as we know. That is why we think that placing in the Bill the need for reasonable contact would not just amend but improve and enhance the welfare checklist, recognising that decisions should be made on the basis that a child’s welfare, development and well-being are best served by maximising contact with both parents—hence the wording of new clause 8 to have the parents involved

“as fully and equally in the parenting as possible.”

We are looking to turn the law on its head. In too many cases, a non-resident parent has almost to argue for his or her right—and I do not like talking about parents’ rights—to contact with the child. It should be the other way around: the child should automatically have a right of maximum reasonable contact with each of his parents, unless the case can be argued against it. It is incumbent on the parent who has custody to put his or her case and to have it properly scrutinised and tested. If the case is made, it should reflect the amount of contact, if any. If the case is not made, we should return to the default position whereby the child has the maximum reasonable contact with both parents.

We are always told by the Government, and by some of the jobbing lawyers who populate the Labour Back Benches in Committee—